The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[AwesomeButton]

I do, and what's your problem?

 

[vonAchdorf]

I do, and what's your problem?

I have none, I just pointed out that you don't need to overlevel if you want story mode.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I do, and what's your problem?

I have none, I just pointed out that you don't need to overlevel if you want story mode.

It's not that I want it, but at the time of my first playthrough I wasn't using scaling mods. I'm fine with not bothering much with combat, but when I killed an archgriffin with 5-6 fast strikes, it felt a bit wrong.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

This is complete history of creating Witcher games - from developers , programmers , artists points of view , with lots of funny stories and with english subtitles .



from November 1997 when Metropolis Software led by Adam Chmielarz announced The Witcher computer game in poilish video magazines....

1:51:00

I always saw myself in the role of his horse, Roach, but no one would cast me in that role...

 

[DalekFlay]

It's not that I want it, but at the time of my first playthrough I wasn't using scaling mods. I'm fine with not bothering much with combat, but when I killed an archgriffin with 5-6 fast strikes, it felt a bit wrong.

What's funny is that just like Witcher 2 there's a ton of people who claim the game is too hard, because if enemies actually hit you it fucking hurts. They're conditioned to just run in and whacky-whacky because games like Skyrim are so wussy about hurting you. As long as you try not to get hit Witcher 2 and 3 are a breeze.

 

[Rahdulan]

It's not that I want it, but at the time of my first playthrough I wasn't using scaling mods. I'm fine with not bothering much with combat, but when I killed an archgriffin with 5-6 fast strikes, it felt a bit wrong.

Game has in-built enemy upscaling under options. You can turn that on because it does turn into a breeze when you hit your level 20s and overlevel everything.

 

[AwesomeButton]

It's not that I want it, but at the time of my first playthrough I wasn't using scaling mods. I'm fine with not bothering much with combat, but when I killed an archgriffin with 5-6 fast strikes, it felt a bit wrong.

Game has in-built enemy upscaling under options. You can turn that on because it does turn into a breeze when you hit your level 20s and overlevel everything.

I haven't played a long time and I must have forgotten about this. Was it there from the beginning or was it added in some patch?

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

^Added by a patch.

IMO it's a nice idea (for a bandaid) so you don't end up with big monsters that kill over when you sneeze at them due to a level difference but the implementation isn't good enough to solve the problem of monsters that become weaker than they should be due to the game's whole enemy/gear level system (which I suspect was tacked on very late in the game's development), not to mention the ones that are stronger than they should be. Due to the way leveling works upscaling/downscaling enemies won't really preserve their level of challenge.

It's going to take more than that to truly remove levels from enemies.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

Regarding difficulty, it's not at all a difficult game. But at the same time, it's also easy to die quickly if you aren't paying attention. I never seem to die on the enemies that are supposed to be difficult (I don't think I've died once since level 15 doing a contract or fighting a boss), but I'll randomly die from a group of mid-level monsters because I got lazy and wasn't paying attention. Or just falling 5 feet. Usually games greatly exaggerate the distance characters can fall without dying, but Geralt's bones seem to be very brittle as he insta-dies from the slightest drop.

Other silliness: "This sword has been in our family for hundreds of years. It was forged by a race of elders from the bones of a dragon and blessed by the gods themselves. We now give it to you because you have done so much for our family." [check stats] Sword does -32 than your midlevel Witcher gear, so you sell it for 300 orens at the first blacksmith you see. It's bizarre to me that fucking herbial liquor that is only sold at certain inns in small quantities, yet is needed in large qunatities to make all the highest level potions, is a much more precious commodity than all the high level shit I get from special quests. Witcher gear is stupid. It was awful in Witcher 2 and it's awful here. It just renders all loot pointless and I wish it wasn't in the game.

I also really hate the leveling system. I don't see the point of limiting the number of skills you can have equipped if each of those skills are going to have to be leveled 3 to 5 times for them to be powerful. It seems like their original intent was to force you to choose which skills you wanted to use, but then they realized that leveling would either make no difference (because you could buy all skills pretty quickly) or it would happen so slowly you'd barely notice it. The problem with what is in the game currently is that while there are a limited number of skill slots, you really only have enough points to fully level up the 9 skills that can fit in the skill slots once you get to level 35. So you never actually have the opportunity to have to decide which skills to use. They should have either made skill points more abundant, in order to give you options, or just did away with the skill slots entirely and used Witcher 2's tree system. The leveling system as it is is a weird compromise between 2 different ideas that does neither terribly well.

Plus, the skill caps for the different levels of skills are really dumb. I always end up leveling at least one shit skill I don't use just to get enough points for the higher level skills. Witcher 2's leveling system was as generic as they come, but it was so much better than this (and actually allowed for better hybrid builds). I don't understand why they changed it.

Not that it matters. I decided I wanted to get the "Get 50 headshot kills with the crossbow" achievement so I completely de-leveled my fast attack skills and put those points in crossbow damage skills and I'm still slicing through everything like butter (although, even fully powered up, the crossbow is fucking useless.).

Anyhow, I finished the main game on Death March. I think the highpoint of the post-Skellige stuff was the battle of Kaer Morgan. The process of getting your allies together was really cool, it seemed like shit was actually at stake, and the battle was resolved in an interesting way. The remainder of the main quests were well done enough, but they all also kind of resolved in a way that wasn't terribly surprising, so they were a bit underwhelming as they didn't throw any curveballs like some of the best quests did. Maybe that's just because I seem to have gotten the "good" completionist ending, which to me also seems like the most bland ending given what I've read (I've heard Ciri can die, depending on your choices, which would have actually been interesting.....so I'd kind of like to replay the game and try to leave a bunch of deliberate lose ends just to see what happens).

My problem, however, is that I'm a completionist. And nothing bad ever seems to happen in C&C heavy games when you are a completionist. I remember I got the bad ending the first time I played ME3, mainly due to a bug, and it was awesome. It completely ripped my guts out and floored me. But then I replayed it a year later once the bugs had been patched, did all the stuff, and got the "good ending" (where your team doesn't die) and it was totally underwhelming. Writers of C&C heavy games shouldn't base good/bad outcomes on whether you do everything, as most players are going to do everything. They should use other criteria. And they should try to include consequences that lead to what might be considered "bad" endings, even if you do everything.

But off to do the DLC content next, which I've saved until last.

 

[vonAchdorf]

I also really hate the leveling system. I don't see the point of limiting the number of skills you can have equipped if each of those skills are going to have to be leveled 3 to 5 times for them to be powerful. It seems like their original intent was to force you to choose which skills you wanted to use, but then they realized that leveling would either make no difference (because you could buy all skills pretty quickly) or it would happen so slowly you'd barely notice it. The problem with what is in the game currently is that while there are a limited number of skill slots, you really only have enough points to fully level up the 9 skills that can fit in the skill slots once you get to level 35. So you never actually have the opportunity to have to decide which skills to use. They should have either made skill points more abundant, in order to give you options, or just did away with the skill slots entirely and used Witcher 2's tree system. The leveling system as it is is a weird compromise between 2 different ideas that does neither terribly well.

There are very few if any essential skills anyway. Basically it's only some points in Axii so you get the dialogue options for charm but it's not essential, just opening up something new.

Often I have like a dozen unspent point, because I can't decide which skills to level / unlock.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The Witcher 3 Episode 1 2

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I hope they finally let us create our own character and move away from Geralt etc.

I liked Geralt's happy ending in Blood and Wine. Retires with his own vineyard, love interest or Ciri there with him.

Seems like Yen's use of the trial of the grasses suggests that more Witchers are going to be created.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Or we could take Lambert for a spin.

 

[DalekFlay]

Regarding difficulty, it's not at all a difficult game. But at the same time, it's also easy to die quickly if you aren't paying attention.

Yeah I basically said that a while back. People say it's hard because it's not afraid to kill you, but that's not the same thing as having difficult or complex combat.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

I also really hate the leveling system. I don't see the point of limiting the number of skills you can have equipped if each of those skills are going to have to be leveled 3 to 5 times for them to be powerful. It seems like their original intent was to force you to choose which skills you wanted to use, but then they realized that leveling would either make no difference (because you could buy all skills pretty quickly) or it would happen so slowly you'd barely notice it.

According to one of the devs they originally meant for skills to be single point investments and the skill slot equipping system to add to the "preparing for a contract monster" feel. I find that was a huge mistake, not only the slot system felt metagame-ish and made character progression feel less rewarding as most unlocked skills went to waste for lack of slots, but it was already the alchemy system's job to give you that "witcher contract preparations" feel(which was made entirely optional even on hardest difficulty).

Someone who enjoys mmorpgs or other skill-loadout type games probably had their way with that decision.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yes. Also it takes you for-fucking-ever to get a skill point mid-game because you're probably over-leveled for all your quests and get zippo exp.

 

[Falksi]

I hope they finally let us create our own character and move away from Geralt etc.

I liked Geralt's happy ending in Blood and Wine. Retires with his own vineyard, love interest or Ciri there with him.

Seems like Yen's use of the trial of the grasses suggests that more Witchers are going to be created.

Yeah, it'd definitely be a natural progression.

If CP2077 is a success then who knows, they may even shift it to first person

 

[Deleted member 7219]

No first person, but yes female protagonist this time please, Ciri being the obvious choice.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

No first person, but yes female protagonist this time please, Ciri being the obvious choice.

Ciri is OP to the point of being boring.

Besides, I want them to get away from telling the same stories about the same characters. I'd like to see something new in the same universe.

And I want the player to be able to really make their own character - which we haven't had in this series since Witcher 1, where they used amnesia as an excuse to let Geralt go a bit out of character. I wouldn't mind being able to chose to make a female character, but I don't want it forced. Though I wouldn't mind it if CDPR said "no" on that for lore reasons.

 

[DalekFlay]

If they're making a Witcher 4 I'd like more meaningful exploration and quest design that is more than just follow the waypoint and fight/watch cutscene.

 

[RNGsus]

Yeah, do something about cutscenes, but I'm not sure what you mean by meaningful exploration. You mean like being paid to scout or something?

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Cutscenes are fine, they should just up the reactivity and C&Cs.

 

[RNGsus]

I just mean they're too frquent, not useless. Maybe I didn't kill enough things between them.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah, do something about cutscenes, but I'm not sure what you mean by meaningful exploration. You mean like being paid to scout or something?

I mean the world is large and detailed but there's nothing really to do in it unless it's a quest. There's no real sense of discovery or finding surprises like in certain other games in the genre. It feels more like a fantasy GTA game, which I've mentioned a bunch of times.